Danes get lit up by Vermont

BURLINGTON, Vt. — The big game was never a game. The University at Albany basketball team couldn’t run with Vermont Saturday afternoon at Patrick Gymnasium.

The Danes, playing what coach Will Brown called “a big game” in just the second America East contest of the season, got blown out by the Catamounts 70-45

“We are shocked, we are surprised, and we are disappointed,” Brown said after the Danes fell to 1-1 in the league and 12-4 overall. “Our guys came into this game confident we would play well. I don’t know why this happened.”

The short answer would be that UAlbany played lousy and Vermont didn’t. The Danes ended the afternoon with 16 turnovers and shot just 35.7 percent from the field (15 for 42). The two leading scorers on the team – guards Jacob Iati (16.1 ppg) and Mike Black (16.1 ppg) – scored a combined 16 points.

Black had 14 of them and Iati, who made one of eight field goals (0-5 from 3-point range), was never a factor. Black also led the Danes with five turnovers.

“We lost,” Black said. “Vermont played exceptionally well and we didn’t. It’s only one game. Getting beat bad like that … it happens. Right now, this game is past my head.”

“It was just one of those games,” said junior forward Luke Devlin. “This was definitely a different taste for us. They just got the jump on us from the start.”

While the Danes will try to forget, there is one thing that might linger in their minds for the rest of the season, especially when the America East Tournament comes to SEFCU Arena in March.

Vermont has beaten Albany seven straight times. The last time UAlbany won a game at Patrick Gymnasium was during the 2008-09 season when the Danes took an 82-77 decision.

In the days leading up to this game, Brown said he was excited to play the Catamounts, the defending America East Tournament champs, this early. He said it would give him an idea as to where his team was at after getting 12 wins in the first 15 games.

Brown didn’t talk of this being a “big game” after the Danes endured their worst conference loss since losing at Boston University 79-58 on Jan. 19, 2010.

“Vermont did what they were supposed to do, they won their game at home,” Brown said. “This is not the end of the world for us. Really, I am more surprised than concerned. Vermont is a good basketball team, they are the defending America East Tournament champs.”

From the start, this was never a game. The Catamounts scored the game’s first seven points and from that point on, the Danes looked dazed and confused.

While the Catamounts were making 62 percent of their shots in the first half and racing out to a 35-19 lead, UAlbany was doing a great job of throwing the ball all over the gym.

By the time the half came to a merciful close for the Danes, Brown had watched his team turn the ball over 10 times. He also saw Vermont’s stifling defense bottle up the UAlbany perimeter players.

The Danes were only able to make one of eight shots from 3-point range.

As the final seconds of the first half ticked off, the Cats’ Trey Blue beat the buzzer with an inside shot to give Vermont the 16-point lead. The Cats left the floor with confidence, the Danes walked off, looks of disbelief on their faces.

In the second half, the Vermont lead grew to as many as 28 points.

“We are not going to come and play this way every night,” Vermont coach John Becker said. “You never expect to beat a team by 25 points. We know that (Albany ) is a good basketball team. They came in here with a lot of momentum.”

Vermont played four players in double figures, led by Blue, who had 15.

The Danes will have little time to feel sorry for themselves as they will be back on the road Monday, playing at Binghamton.

#7 agree, AE is as much guard oriented as the MAAC. Been saying all along Iati a good savvy smart BB player, hell of a shot, who wears down defender by constant movement. He makes up for his lack of athleticism and quickness this way. If oppoing coach always has fresh legs on him, he is easy to shut down. IE both recent games where he has trouble. I certainly hope they do not figure it out, but also shows the caliber of coachs we are chatting about.Limit iati UA is hurting. Others need to step up.

This was a horrible game by all of the Danes. They all played very poorly and seemed psyched out after the first 3 minutes of the game. Vermont played a very strong fundamental game – good movement and passing to the open man. They did not force shots and as a result they just pulled away while UA was making one turnover after another. It was shockingly inept performance by UA. Vermont could not miss and UA could not even get a shot off many times down the court.
I do not understand why Coach Brown did not adjust and try to change the game by pressing VT when they were down so much in the second half…a few turnovers and scores off the defense could have changed the confidence and play by UA. But no we stayed with an impotent perimeter game and a pace that seemed like UA was ahead by 15 instead of down by a bunch. Wakeup UA…adjust during the game and use some of the bench talent to press once in awhile. What happened on the foul line needs work too.

Well, I guess I may not get as much heat as usual should I say anything negative about UA. They’ve already exceeded my expectations and beaten Siena as well. I’m happy. Before the year began, I picked them to finish 7th. Now, I’d pick them to finish 5th. They may end up 4th, but I’m afraid Maine or Hartford may sneak into that spot somehow. I don’t know what BU’s problem has been the last couple years, but I still find it hard to believe they’ll be out of the top 3. Stony Brook seems to be the class of the conference and then of course there’s UVM. We’ll see….